Caroline Burney was the pseudonym of the author of two early 19th-century three-volume novels published in London: Seraphina (1809) and Lindamira (1810).
The novels belong to a genre which had become known in the late 18th century as "modern novels", distinguished by their treatment of sensibility, manners and sentiment, in contrast to the "romances", which were seen as "characteristically extravagant and improbable".
D'Arblay) was exiled in France at the time and probably unaware of the novels, but their publication under that name was resented at least by Sarah Burney's publisher, Henry Colburn.
The following note appeared facing page 1 of the first edition of Sarah Burney's Traits of Nature: "ADVERTISEMENT.
"[4] Sarah refers disparagingly to Seraphina in a letter to her niece Charlotte Barrett, dated 4 October 1811: "I am scandalized at Sal's[5] fal-lal taste in the literary way.... She ought by this time to like... something in short besides Sir Henry, and Seraphina, & a parcel of stuff only good to put money in the writer's pocket.